Identifier: panamacanal01hall (find matches)
Title: Panama and the canal
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Hall, Alfred B. (Alfred Bates), 1875-1936 Chester, Clarence Lyon, 1877- joint author
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Newson and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
sit on the Isthmus. Leaving Colon behind we shall pass on into the interior of the country and finally across to the larger and more attractive City of Panama on the Pacific coast. The Interior These two towns and the country lying betweenthem are about all of the Isthmus that is seen by the usualtraveler. Much of the remaining country is almost im-possible to visit. There are few roads and many hundredsquare miles even now are unexplored and uninhabited.The whole population of Panama is about 350,000, Out-side of Colon and the City of Panama the inhabitants arescattered about the Isthmus in many small villages, mostlyon the sea-coast. We may find it confusing at first that both the countryand its chief city are called Panama. To avoid difficultywe shall always speak of the latter as the City of Panama. A low backbone of hills, called the Cordillera de Bando,extends throughout the length of the Isthmus. Only at afew points do these hills become real mountains. The RIVER AND VILLAGE 49
Text Appearing After Image:
50 TROPICAL VEGETATION greater part is low and rolling. In the flat, winding val-leys between the hills are many small rivers. The prin-cipal ones are the Rio Tuyra, Rio Grande, Rio Chepo, andthe Rio Chagres. The latter flows into the Atlantic andis next to the longest and largest. (Rio means river inSpanish.) In the dry season the rivers are little morethan small streams, pushing sluggishly through their swampychannels toward the sea. The Chagres is then about twohundred feet wide and three or four feet deep. But in therainy season the rivers become raging torrents, floodingmiles of land. The Chagres has been known to rise thirtyfeet in one night, and for days at a time it sweeps awayall in its path. In the interior of the country, away from Colon, thereis much to see of great interest, especially to those of uswho have never been in the tropics. With a hot climate,rich soil, and much moisture, almost the whole of Panama,up to the very hill-tops, is covered with a tangled jungle,in w

Note About Images